Small food trays or common plates are often used in many common situations where food and/or drink can not be placed on a support such as a table. The user carries a tray in one hand while leaving the other hand entirely free. One common situation is at a social function where food is being served.
A disadvantage of common plates and food trays, is they are difficult to hold steady in one hand while eating out of them in another. The reason for this is that the common plate or tray was designed to placed on a table or a flat surface and was not designed to be supported by a single hand while the other hand performs operations on the food in the tray or the plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,247 describes a tray that has a hand grip for holding the tray and a cup. The tray is designed to be held in a particular manner, as shown in FIG. 7. As one can see from the drawings, the indicated manner of using this prior art tray is with the thumb and index finger on the top, or upper surface, of the tray with the remaining fingers underneath the tray. This is not a biomechanically comfortable position for the hand and does not allow the hand/wrist/forearm unit to be rotated upward or supinated. A tray held in this manner causes fatigue to rapidly set in and discomfort to the user. Additionally the finger placement of the remaining three fingers on the under surface of the prior art tray does not allow for smooth placement of the fingers and therefore does not allow for steady support of the tray. Additionally this prior art tray does not teach or suggest any structure which could interact with the palm of the user to assist in supporting the tray.